Friday, June 15, 2007

Friday 06/15 A.M. Quickie:All Hail the Duncan Dynasty

All hail the "Duncan Dynasty": If there were still any questions that the Spurs were a dynasty, they are gone now with the team's fourth title in 9 years. To be more specific, it's the "Duncan Dynasty."

(UPDATE: By the way, I just posted an update to the stand-alone post about the Spurs below, with a response from the great Kelly Dwyer to the argument. He schools me, so if you like the idea of that, I highly recommend scrolling down or clicking here to check it out.)

Hot Blogger Bracket, Round 3: And I'm already down in the early voting to 17-seed Mini-Me from WBRS Sports Blog! Is this the end of the road for me? Don't let it happen: Vote now (and vote often)!

U.S. Open: Only two players defied par, which makes me think that it's only going to get uglier. But that's fine: Golf scores are totally overrated in any context beyond how they rank relative to each other.

MLB Dud: Josh Beckett, who got hung with his first loss of the year... to Atkins' Rockies.

NHL: Congrats to Sidney Crosby, at 19 the league's youngest MVP since Gretzky. If they are going to keep avid fans engaged for the long haul (and maybe even pique the interest of casual/dis-engaged fans), the best place to start is to have the best player in the league be a 19-year-old. It sure worked in the early-80s.

Poker: Is it me, or does the World Series of Poker not have as much oomph as in previous years? Probably signals that the poker boom has peaked, at least as a sports event. I'm sure the volume of players is still up (and growing), but it's time for the WSOP on TV to move to live, rather than post-produced on tape. We lose Norman Chad's scripted commentary? Oh, geez, well, them's the breaks.

NBA '06-07, Closure: Bethlehem Shoals from Free Darko and I have been involved in a fascinating, in-depth Gtalk session spanning several days this week. If that discussion provided even a smidgen of inspiration for the brilliant, must-read "Longform Shoals" post he put together for NBA Fanhouse yesterday, I feel like I have done my part.

Here's the part he nails: The NBA has to embrace that it has become a "niche" sport, then do everything it can to maximize the relationship it has with its remaining, die-hard fans. Oversimplified, that means meeting those fans wherever (and however) they want to consume the NBA. (Oh, and that the market power of China cannot be understated.)

Given that it's the final weekday before Father's Day – and given my little side project (that I hope all parents are reading and passing along to their friends) – I have a longer post dedicated to Father's Day going up later this morning.

70 comments:

Spurs are still not a Dynasty - If they win next year and finally defend there Title then they can be consider a Dynasty. Just like the 80's Celtics are a great team but not a Dynasty since they never defended any of there titles.

Again, not to take away from the Spurs, but to me a dynasty has to include multiple, consecutive titles (3+). The Spurs are not a dynasty in that sense. They are, however, the most consistent team in the last decade. Considering their high level of play over that stretch, I think that's just as good. Besides, dynasties can't co-exist and the post-Bulls dynasty was...the Lakers (or, more accurately, the Shaq Dinasty if you add the Miami title)

College World Series starts today! There's a possibility of rematch of last years championship series between UNC and Oregon State. There's also 2 (at least) teams making their first ever trip to Omaha: Lousiville and the UCal-Irvine Anteaters.

RE: WSOP live, they broadcast last year's Main Event final table on PPV (no hole card cam, though, for obvious reasons), and that simply illustrated why a live broadcast is not a good idea. I believe it took TEN hours for the final table to be completed. The post-production work weeds out all the uneventful hands.

Furthermore, the reason you haven't heard much about it is that the Main Event, which is what most people focus on, hasn't started yet. For those of us who enjoy the game and do follow it to a certain extent, we know that there has been some excitement already. Phil Hellmuth recently won his record 11th bracelet, passing both Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson, who each have 10.

That's right! The Weav gave up 3 ER in the first and nothing over the next 5 IP. Uncharacteristically, the bullpen lost the game in the eighth. Morrow has had control problems lately: 2 BB yesterday and 3 BB in his previous game.

The problem with poker on TV is that there are about 20 different poker shows on now. It is more of a saturation issue.

I disagree that a team has to win in consecutive years to be a dynasty.

Yanks 7.5 back of Boston, 3.5 back in the wild card. They have won 9 out of 10 and Mets have lost 9 out of 10. Three games in Yankee Stadium this weekend. Using sports logic that means the Mets will probably sweep. Actually they have the favorable pitching matchups in games 1 and 2.

The numbers in the Main Event will surely drop off this year, with the US ban on Internet poker severly limiting the number of people who can qualify from their laptop for $1. But the "smaller" events are still rising in entrants and, therefore, prize money.

I'll be in Vegas for my second Main Event in 2 weeks. Can't even tel you how much I'm looking forward to it. Wish me luck!

Yup, the problem with live poker is that most hands one guy bets and everyone folds. From watching it on TV you would think that people are going all in on every hand. I think live Internet coverage would work. It would be too boring on TV.

I am very into bicyling as my username suggests. I follow live coverage of races all the time on the Internet. However on TV, I want the 5 hour race condensed to 30 or 60 minute highlights. The same with a long distance triathalon or marathon. There is too much down time to cover it live. On the Internet you just check back every 10 or 15 minutes and scan for the highlights.

I also enjoy watching the WSOP, but I like the taped version better because of the editing and the card cam. Otherwise, it would be fairly boring and monotonous.

But the editing does give inexperienced players the idea that something exciting happens every hand, so they are more prone to play more hands than they should. So that helps tighter players to take their money!

I think the main event is too large, they should raise the entry fee to $25k to reduce the size of the pool. Then again, there are a lot of gamblers there who have busted out early and will spend money so I guess bring a large group of gamblers to your casino is good business in general.

Also, mark today's date...June 15th. I've officially given up and stopped caring about the O's season.

The beatings this season have taken their toll and I cant take it any more. Getting swept at home by the Nats is a new low point. I cant force myself to suffer like this anymore. Only 6 weeks til Ravens Training Camp opens!

@ big d: I don't think you're going to see a drop-off at all. Not all poker sites stopped accepting deposits from U.S. players. Those who were playing at sites that stopped accepting money from Americans simply moved over to another site that still permitted it. Those sites may have even more satellite spots to give away as they now have more players. The last estimate I saw on the expected turnout at the Main Event was 9,000 players.

Poker is less of a sport than the freakin' spelling bee! The sooner it's off of "sports TV", the better. Leave it on Spike or something.

I think the Celtics and Lakers were both dynasties in the 80's....I think you can have multiple dynasties simultaneously if they co-dominate.

And since the Spurs were "interrupted" by the Kobe-Shaq teams....that's probably okay since the Spurs were just one notch below for a couple of years.

And enough with the Bulls love. How many of those Bulls players start for the Lakers or Celtics? Jordan for either the Lakers or the Celtics, and probably then you could add Pippen, too, instead of Rambis on the Lakers. But the rest of those teams ride a lot of pine.

And the NHL awards night is a freakin' cool idea. College Football sorta does it for ESPN, but since the Heisman's not awarded that night, it doesn't have the same allure.

When do the sox fans start the official panic?? The pitching is coming back to earth (probably be a little better than what is has been recently but won't go back to the absolute domination it was in the early going) and they can't seem to hit worth a damn (mainly because their line-up is not THAT good)...7.5 in mid June is not a big lead considering the Yanks pitching is leveling off to where it should be for the year (there rotation is solid to quite solid - one of the better rotations in baseball) and the bullpen is doing much bettter (mainly because they are finally getting the rest they need). The cocky red sox fan is slowing crawling back into their hole as the yanks make up ground...now that this has been written they will proceed to get swept by the mets this weekend.

Pivotal game tonight - the Rocket needs to hold serve so Clippard can get knocked around tomorrow and Wang can get the win for 2 out of 3 against the mets and keep the momentum going.

As a sox fan, I'm no more worried now than I was a few weeks ago. Then again, a few weeks ago I wasn't saying the yankees were done unlike all the talking heads because there were still 100 games left. Baseball is a loooooong season and a big lead early doesn't mean much. It's ridiculuous to start talking about how many games back a team is at this point. To me that shouldn't start till about the Trade deadline.

I'm tired of the WSOP, it was interesting a few years ago when it was kind of a novelty but I think I reached the point of oversaturation. I'd rather have ESPN broadcast more baseball games.

to yankee fan...we never stopped panicking...! to be a sox fan means a constant queasy feeling of uneasy morbidity...what other team could have the best record in all of baseball, 17 games over .500 and feel like the end is near?...the sox of course...conjure up the image in 1st jurassic park, when the t rex footsteps can be heard but not seen...that is the hell we live in with the dang yankees...who has under 5 game lead by all star break? (or even tied???)

As a Yankee fan its almost more enjoyable to be down this far than to be up by a ton of games...every game is so much more exciting and important - and to know deep down that you have a legitimate shot at coming back just makes the tension even more sweet...

Plus knowing that if they make the playoffs they throw Wang, Pettite, Rocket makes me giddy (vs. say a Dice-K, Schilling, Becket) I'd take the Yanks 3 v. the Sox 3...

Big D - Based on the number of Buy ins in Early Tournament the numbers for the Main Event are going to be pretty high. At least what they had last year if not more. Good Luck in the tourney hope you cash. Make sure to come back to the site and give us updates

It is not time to panic yet for Red Sox fans, every team goes through a cold spell and this is the Red Sox one. They will right the ship. There rotation is still one of the better in baseball and Lugo and Drew will start to hit. As for Coco Crisp it is time to dump is ass other then defense he is worthless.

The problem with the main event is that if you want a shot you are going to have to re-buy like 10 times...hope you brought your checkbook (this is based off no real knowledge of the world series of poker...just what I thought goes on...so feel free to rip this comment apart)

Now that the NBA is over, ESPN can go on in their lovefest with the NFL. It's sad that there are other great sports stories out there but we must be subjected to year round coverage of the No Fun League. If they cared more about baseball and some other sports, we would not be watching gymnastics, cheerleading, gladiators reruns, and spelling bee re-runs on friday and saturday nights. Bring back baseball 4 or 5 nights a week on ESPN. They wonder why people aren't interested in baseball as much anymore. Shanoff, I'm glad you don't work for that company anymore.

I think I saw someone dis those American Gladiator reruns. That is the greatest show ever!

One of the coolest things I ever saw was Seth Joyner competing on an NFL edition. He was on the ring contraption and the gladiator was coming at him to try and pull him down. Joyner held on to a ring with one hand. With his free hand he grabbed the gladiator and just ripped him off the rings like he was a ragdoll. It was awesome!

Brian- Rodman, Grant, Cartwright, and Harper are all guys who could have started on some of those Celtics or Lakers dynasties. I'd like to put my man Bill Wennington in there too, but I just can't, heh.

The White Sox didn't lose yesterday. They didn't play, but they didn't lose, so its a start I tells you!

Looks like Beckett got lit the F up yesterday- by the Rockies. So much for him being so incredibly better than Buerhle eh? His ERA is lower but his WHIP is the same. Slight edge on K's (big deal...). IP are close to the same.

Poker was lost for me once people who do not know how to play started playing in hordes (and winning). It's become too much of a crapshoot than it used to be. I wish they had a "true" world series where the only entrants are people who have won or at least played in a few final tables over the course of a year.

Verbal the true World Series starts next weekend. It is the $50,000 buy in H.O.R.S.E. Event which is probably the toughest event of them all to win and last years final table had all of the best players at with none of the I get really lucky playing with crap amatuers at it.

In the words of the Wolf "Let's not suck each other's dicks quite yet". However, it does seem that the Red Sox and Mets are regressing to their mean. Yes, they're both very good teams, but their early records were inflated. Also, Red Sox fans (except perhaps cmfost) have Beckett's late season slowdown and annual finger injuries to look forward to, and Mets fans know that El Duque will be going back to the old folks' home in September again.

Verbal it was added last year to the WSOP. Chip Reese won last year tourney and if I remember correctly the Final table also had Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Andy Black and few others. The great thing about HORSE is it is a mixed game

Omaha hold 'em makes things fun and interesting. That is the one that pays the high hand (like Texas hold-em, the Main event game) and also pays the low hand provided one qualifies. You can think you win a huge pot with the high hand only to have it split because someone qualified for the low hand.

Isn't Omaha High-Low a separate event? I never could get into Omaha, too many variables and I always think I have a good hand until I realize that I can only use 2 hole cards. Maybe I should give that another shot because I've given up hold 'em because of too many losers who play EVERY freaking hand thus increasing the odds for losing later in the hand.

The will to win just outweighed everything and would continue to do so against this Spurs team.

PF/C, PG arugment. In 1995-96 season you could have traded Pre Injury Penny, a PG, or Shaq, a C, for anyone in the League.

That Magic team was 7-1 and won by an average of 14 ppg in the playoffs before the Conference finals.

They were young but don't forget they had Horace Grant(13.4 ppg), Nick Anderson (14.7), and Dennis Scott(17.5). Not to mention beat a Rusty Jordan team and went to the finals the year before.

You know what happened to those Bulls who were weak at the PF/C and PG positions. They let them each score over 25.5 ppg and SWEPT them by an average of 16 ppg.

Grant Scott and Anderson combined for 2 (that is 1 plus 1 equals 2) points in 84 minutes. After that game Grant was so embarrased by this that he sat out the rest of the series like the pussy he was.

Rodman was a much more than capable defender and would have played Duncan just as well as he played Malone or Shaq. Rodman would have Duncan's eyes fully popped out of his head. Don't forget they had the three headed monster of Longley Wennington and Purdue. That is 18 fouls.

I don't argue that Duncan would have gotten his 26/11 and Parker got his 25 or whatever. That's only 51 points. The rest of the team gets shut down.

The 98 Bulls had 5 people with 1 steal or more per game. Jordan Pippen Kukoc Harper and Randy Brown who only played 16 mpg. He matches up with Parker very well.

98 Bulls vs. 07 Spurs team is no contest. Duncan is used to controlling the glass. Who do you think would have gotten more rebounnds? Duncan who averaged 10.6 or Rodman who averaged 15.0.

Put Bowen on Jordan? Ha Ha Ha oh did I mention Ha yet. You could put Oscar Robertson on Jordan and he is still going to get his 31 ppg(96-98) that he averaged in the Finals.

Now who guards Pippen. There is nobody left. Please don't say Manu. Imagine a Manu vs. Pip matchup. Oh Lord that would be fun.

It's obviously not close.

Now for the Zone Comment. You seem to think that would favor the Spurs. Where would Parker go when you have 3 guys over 6'6 on the perimeter with those long arm spans. That takes the "problem" the Bulls have with PG's and lessens it.

Please reconsider Dan. I have lost faith in you recently and this is not helping the cause.

At that point in his career you just weren't beating Jordan in a 7 game series. No debate. He is the epitome of will, heart, and determination.

2 more thingshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7MhY93dXX0

Watch that video. At about 3:40 Jordan "pushes" off. They are on the Jazz side of the court. I want you to picture yourself on the bench of the Jazz. Coach of the Jazz. How are you not screaming at the referee? How is the entire team not yelling at the refs. The crowd is not chanting BULL SHIT BULL SHIT. He didn't push him.

Finally 2 quotes to leave everyone with. First by Larry Bird"God disguised as Michael Jordan."The second by what many people think is the 2nd best player and some even think he is the best in the past 30 years.Magic Johnson said "There's Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us."

Two pretty reliable sources who you would think knew what they were talking about....

There is absolutely no possible way that "God" loses a 7 game series to one of the "rest of us"

Jordan slowing down in 98 huh Dan. When exactly was he slowing down. When he was averaging 33.5 ppg or when he was down by 3 with 40 seconds left and drove by Russel like it was pregame warmups.

Wait it could have been when he came back down the floor and stripped Malone.

No I think it was when he came back down the floor and nailed the game winning shot to finish with 45 points. Man only 45 pts with 4 pts and a steal in 3 possesions in the final 40 seconds in a clinching game 6 of the finals against the team with the best regular season record. If only he wasn't slowing down just imagine what he could have done.

Here's an interesting question: was Jordan good or bad for basketball? On one hand he increased the popularity and made it a world wide sport. On the other the whole "superstar" style of the game is because of him and a whole generation of people think that's the way the game is played.

Actually at the WSOP there are certain events that are now shown live via the web that shows the hole cards. And of course it is PPV. The only problem is the Nevada Gaming Commission came down with an iron fist with regulations.

Any Final Table shown via a live webcast that shows the hole cards have to have a complete media blackout. The only people allowed in the room are the players, a few guests per player and some media members that cannot report anything that goes on for at least an hour and no communication devices.

And the kicker is no one is allowed out of the room until the event is over to prevent the players from cheating.

The reason for so much poker on TV is that it is really cheap to produce. Production costs of producing a poker show are relatively cheap and they don't pay royalties to a league or to athletes like for other shows. Also people tend to watch it.

Texas Hold Em is my least favorite of all the mainstream poker games. I would rather see other types of poker.

Verbal, if you are at a Texas Hold em table and people are playing a ton of hands, you know they don't all have strong hands. Play tight, and when they make a move and you have them beat, pounce.

I'm with you on the Jordan thing. By so many people wanting to "be like Mike"....but they WEREN'T Mike....and the NBA suffered.

Combine that with the marketing machine that is Nike....and suddenly we were brainwashed that the MJ way was the only way to play.

I always put it this way. When Jordan made a great play (and yes, there were PLENTY) .... he was always the one who scored the points. When Magic or Bird made a great play, it was just as likely that somebody ELSE was getting the points.

Brian,I agree that is the perception with Jordan, but I always remember him being an INCREDIBLE team player. He always got his teammates involved when he needed to. How else would Longley score 20 in a Finals game? However, at crunch time (when most of the "big" plays happen) he wanted the ball in his hands, as do most of us great players. ;)

The Red Sox just released a statement on the passing of Larry Whiteside.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Larry Whiteside. For more than 30 years, Mr. Whiteside covered baseball and the Red Sox for the Boston Globe with integrity, professionalism, and excellence. He was held in high regard and greatly respected by front office executives, managers, coaches, and players alike.

"Mr. Whiteside was a pioneer as one of the first African-Americans to cover a major league baseball beat and was a mentor to many young baseball writers who followed him.

"The Red Sox express their heartfelt condolences to Mr. Whiteside’s family and friends. He will be missed in the press box and clubhouse at Fenway Park."

Connect With Me

Quickish

About This Blog

DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.